Energy Dreams

Album review

Since the latter half of the 2000s, Yuvi Havkin has been a central figure of Tel Aviv's underground music scene. As the founder of Raw Tapes, he has helped carve out a niche which shares much common ground with the Los Angeles beat scene, uniting various producers, rappers, jazz singers, and musicians with a hunger for creativity. Havkin has toured and released records as part of the left-field pop group Buttering Trio and free-form hip-hop collective Live Beat Tapes, but Rejoicer is his primary solo venture, showcasing his hazy, smoothly flowing mélange of influences such as psychedelic soul and Bollywood soundtracks. Energy Dreams, his debut release for Los Angeles scene staple Stones Throw, will tick all the boxes for anyone in tune with the aesthetic of the now-defunct L.A. weekly Low End Theory, or any regular Dublab listeners. Havkin keeps things funky but dreamy, with synth melodies which tend to blossom like petals or sprinkle like raindrops, and broken beats which shift slightly off balance, but never so much that it falls apart. There are jazzy elements, such as the cruising horns during "Yesterday's Forest Magic" or the fluid basslines throughout the album, but it's not as overtly jazz-influenced as the work of labelmate Kiefer. "Double Astral Move" features a tricky time signature, yet it goes down easy due to its crystalline synth melody and fuzzy texture. The album's only cameo is provided by Mndsgn, who contributes to the whistle-driven "Purple T Shirts." The strings during "Alien Sphere" and "Lucid Intent" seem to be captured inside bubbles which swiftly float away. Hardly any of the sounds on Energy Dreams seem to appear in a solid form; everything feels squishy, squirmy, or vaporous. It all adds up to a pleasantly weird dream which never gets uncomfortable.
© Paul Simpson /TiVo